GATHER – The Value of the Music Manager and Their Role in Supporting Canadian Music as Art Presented by The Music Managers Forum

September 8, 2026 | 6:00 PM | It’s OK* Studio, Toronto, ON | Free With RSVP | All Ages 

In celebration of the 2026 Polaris Festival, presented by SiriusXM Canada, Polaris presents The Value of the Music Manager: Their Role in Supporting Canadian Music as Art, a salon-style conversation exploring the labour, care, strategy, and responsibility of artist management in Canada’s music ecosystem.

The 2026 Polaris Festival is a month-long celebration of Canadian music as art, bringing together concerts, salons, listening sessions, conversations, artist development initiatives, and the Polaris Concert & Award Ceremony at Massey Hall. Through the Festival, Polaris creates space for audiences to listen differently, gather around important Canadian albums, and explore how music shapes culture, identity, memory, and belonging.

Register Free to Reserve Your Spot

The Value of the Music Manager uses music manager burnout as an entry point into a larger discussion about what it takes to support Canadian music as art. Managers are often positioned as the people behind the artist, coordinating opportunities, shaping strategy, managing relationships, solving problems, supporting releases, navigating funding, protecting boundaries, and helping artists build sustainable careers.

Yet this work is often invisible, under-resourced, emotionally demanding, and difficult to measure. As artists are asked to do more with less, managers are often expected to absorb industry pressure while also providing care and long-term vision.

This conversation asks what happens when the people responsible for supporting artists are themselves unsupported. By speaking honestly about burnout, the panel makes visible the value of managers not only as business representatives, but as cultural workers, creative partners, advocates, and caretakers of artistic possibility.

Panelists

TBA

About Music Managers Forum

Music Managers Forum Canada (MMF Canada) is a non-profit trade association and is one of many such associations around the world. We offer education, networking and advocacy on behalf of our members, their artists, and the wider Canadian music community. We aim to be the go-to source for Canadian artists and managers on issues related to music management in Canada and around the world. As the management sector’s voice in the industry, MMF Canada advocates to various levels of government on behalf of its members on key issues that affect managers and their artists. Our members come from across Canada and work in various genres at a range of levels, including self-managed artists, new managers and highly experienced managers representing some of the largest acts in Canada. We work collaboratively with strategic partners within the larger music community to offer workshops, webinars and other programming that allows our members to connect with each other while developing their management skills and industry knowledge.

About the Polaris Festival

Polaris Music Prize is a Canadian charitable arts organization honouring music as art. Through its Album, Song, and Heritage Prizes, Polaris amplifies Canadian artists based on artistic merit.

The 2026 Polaris Festival is presented by SiriusXM Canada and made possible through the support of Experience Ontario, Ontario Creates, the City of Toronto’s Cultural Festivals Funding Program, FACTOR, the Government of Canada, Canada’s private radio broadcasters, and the Festival’s many community and venue partners.